School start times and the academically and intellectually gifted program are among the items on today's agenda for the Wake County school board's student achievement committee.

The committee will get an update on the group that was formed to study school start times. Among the things that group is looking at is flipping the bell schedule to start elementary schools earlier so high schools could start later.

Staff will discuss a review of the district's AIG program.

Other topics include an update on measures of student learning/common exams/new assessments and proposed 2013-14 early release dates.

The assistance that can be provided to non-magnet schools will be the bulk of today's Wake County school board student achievement committee meeting with a little discussion set aside for school start times.

The committee will discuss Wake's curriculum enhancement and school support options. The committee will review existing programs, criteria/selection, school performance, school demographics, growth composites, Title I schools and support, and intervention-at risk support.

This topic comes as staff told board members they would look to see what additional assistance could be offered to schools that aren't getting magnet programs as part of the new federal magnet grant.

Board member Christine Kushner, the committee chairwoman, said the second topic involves seeing how the community can get involved in terms of setting bell schedules. You had all the bell schedule changes this year to implement the new transportation plan and the periodic debates about which start times work better for which ages.

UPDATE

I'll do a separate post on the programs discussed today.

How did the Wake County school bus situation get so bad during the first two weeks of the traditional-calendar school year?

As noted in today's article, a combination of factors led to the problems that caused buses to come late or not all and generated a daily stream of media reports. It ultimately stems back to a desire to save money that led to the adoption of unrealistic bus routes that Wake has tried to remedy by putting back 41 of the 52 buses it had removed from service.

"We focused too much on becoming efficient, getting the right number of kids on the bus up, trying to squeeze too many stops too great a distance, particularly in those instances where we’ve got three tiers: one, two, three schools in a row," Don Haydon, Wake's chief facilities and operations officer told school board members last week.

Wake County students should get ready to spend about an extra 10 minutes a day in class for the 2013-14 school year.

The school board approved tonight the 2013-14 calendars for the traditional, year-round and modified schools. All three maintain the use of 180 days of school.

The General Assembly modified the calendar law this year to say that, beginning in 2013-14, school districts would have to either 185 days or at least 1,025 hours of instruction. When legislators changed the law last year to require both, most districts got waivers to stick with the old requirement of 180 days and at least 1,000 hours.

School administrators don't yet have the details of how they'd modify bell schedules next year to get the extra 25 hours. But it could be a tricky balancing act as high school families probably will complain about starting earlier and elementary school families will object to ending later.

UPDATE

Click here to view the 2013-14 calendars adopted by the school board on Tuesday. The only calendar not approved yet is for the early colleges and leadership academies. Since those schools are linked with the universities, Wake is waiting to see the 2013-14 college schedules.

The Wake County school board will vote Tuesday on the calendars that will be used for the 2013-14 school year.

Staff presented this week this set of draft 2013-14 calendars for traditional, year-round and modified schools. The only change the board requested is that June 11 instead of Nov. 27 be used as a weather makeup day on the traditional calendar.

The change was requested because the evening of Nov. 27, 2013 is the start of Hanukkah. Another reason that Nov. 27 is scheduled as a a vacation day is that it's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

The vote to move the start time for Middle Creek Elementary School to 8:30 a.m. for this fall was approved unanimously and with some melodrama.

During public comment, Middle Creek parents supporting the change thanked Superintendent Tony Tata for bringing it forward. Board member Susan Evans said the credit should go to board member Jim Martin for "pleading their case."

Martin thanked Evans but said that Tata and other people had worked hard on  it too.

The Middle Creek Elementary bell schedule change, the new student assignment plan and the magnet school review make up most of the topics for the 22 speakers at tonight's Wake County school board meeting.

Former school board member Beverley Clark went right after Superintendent Tony Tata during her three minutes. She charged that teachers and principals say that Tata has created a "culture of fear and intimidation" and is only "paying lip service" to listening to teachers and principals.

Clark also charged that Tata has created an assignment plan that says "let's only teach the ones who mater." She said that group consists of families who apply to "esoteric academies" or who spend hours researching where to go.

Clark also urged the school board not to separate behavior from academic grade.

The Wake County school board is facing a lengthy agenda on Tuesday, including extending school waiting lists, changing the bell schedule for Middle Creek Elementary and votes on the Wake Young Women's Leadership Academy and the career and technical education high school.

Staff is recommending extending the waiting lists for students who didn't get into their first-choice school from June 29 to July 18. Any later could result in a student withdrawing after the 10th day of classes in a year-round school and thus not being counted at the new school.

The board will also vote on moving Middle Creek Elementary from a 9:15 a.m. start time to 8:30 a.m. According to the board agenda, it's being done to treat Middle Creek Elementary, West Lake Elementary and West Lake Middle as  a single campus because of their close proximity.

Should the Wake County school system guarantee bus service to all students who choose to stay on their current feeder pattern?

It's an issue in the new student assignment that the school board has been wrestling with for the past several months. The discussion got personal at times last week with board member Jim Martin, the most outspoken proponent of providing the bus service, taking shots from board members Debra Goldman and Deborah Prickett.

For now, staff is continuing to review what bus service can be provided.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill is defending staff members against fellow Democratic board member Jim Martin's allegations of political partisanship in the 2012-13 school bell schedules.

The issue is the changes recommended by staff, and later approved by board, to the original bell schedule proposal. In a March 27 email, Martin charged that "only schools in districts represented by Republican members of the Board were changed."

"I am not pleased with the fact that there still is too much partisanship in Board decisions," Martin wrote. " It appears to me that this is another example."